A Conversation with Leonard Podolak (continued)

LP: And then I called up Tania, who was in Victoria. I’d met her in the early days of Scruj when we were doing a gig in British Columbia, and she showed up at the gig--she was like fourteen years old or something--and said, "I play fiddle, and I'd love to jam with you guys for a couple tunes. Can we work something out backstage?"

PM: Wow! At fourteen she said this!

LP: Yes. And she was killer. I mean, she showed us how to do it. You know what I mean? So for like two or three years this young woman in B.C. was in the back of my mind, just, "Man, I wonder how she's doing? I wonder what's going on there?" And then, sure enough, I called her up and said, "I've got a new band. I've got this great guitar player, I've got this great singer, and would you like to come and try it out?" By the end of the phone conversation she was already looking up apartment rentals in Winnipeg.

PM: [laughs]

LP: So it was really great. By January of 2002 I had a core unit. And then sort of the final kind of fluke of it all, there was this guy named Rodrigo Munoz--

PM: [laughs]

LP: --who was known in Winnipeg as Papa Mambo, from Chile. And he had this great eight-piece salsa band called Papa Mambo. But in 1993, the bugger moved back to Chile. And so Winnipeg lost him. But then, just as I was starting this band again and my old band was ending, he moved back to Winnipeg. And so he came over, he's an old friend of my family's. And he was visiting socially, and asked, "So, what are you up to?" And I said, "Well, my band broke up, but I'm starting a new band. And this is what it is" la, la, la. "I'm looking for a percussion player. Do you have any ideas?" And he said, "Oh, you're looking for a percussion player? I'll be your percussion player."

PM: [laughs]

LP: Which was great! I said, "Rod, are you kidding me? I would have asked you, but I never would have imagined in a million years that you'd want to play with me." So he said, "Yes," and it was great. And it was amazing because it made it so that I had a band. I had the whole band. I had the rhythm section, I had the melody section, I had a singer, and everyone trusted me and loved my music, and knew where it could go--or had an idea of where it could go.

PM: Right.

LP: So I just said to the gang, "Okay, now we're together, and we have to make a record. There's absolutely no point in trying to do anything without a CD." So I called up Mark Shatz and said, "I've got a new band together. You did such a great job on producing the Scruj record"--which is what he did, Road to Canso, which also was nominated for a Juno. So far I've made three studio albums, one with Scruj, two with The Duhks, they've all been nominated. Killer.

PM: Damn.

LP: So Mark agreed to do it. He came on up. We made the record. We toured for a couple months. Then Rodrigo said—well, he saw where the band was going, and really his heart was always in Papa Mambo and salsa music and Latin jazz. He said, "Look, man, I can't do this anymore. But I'll tell you what, I know who can. I know this young kid. His name is Scott Senior and he can play the shit out of anything."

PM: Wow.

LP: And so we had a conference down in Atlanta that we were selected to showcase at called the Southern Arts Exchange. So I called up Senior and said, "Look, man, I want to hire you to come to this showcase. We only have to play three songs."

[laughter]

LP: "I'm hiring you to come to Atlanta to play three songs with me." And so he came over for a jam, and instantaneously he got it. And when you talk to him he'll say, "Oh, it took me about a year to really figure out this music." Ha, ha, ha. That's bullshit. He had it in the first ten seconds.

PM: Wow. And where did he come from? Where did he come to Atlanta from?

LP: From Winnipeg. Yeah, because he was playing in Rodrigo's band, he was the conga player.

PM: Oh, okay. And was he Rodrigo's student as well?

LP: Yeah, he was. And so it was really cool. He came--I guess that would have been in September of 2002. And I guess that summer he had come--oh, no, a couple months after that, or a little while after that he was like, "Okay, I can do it. But I have to go to Cuba." He had already planned trip to Cuba to learn and study music. And he came back from Cuba just enriched and so pumped about music, with so much scope and breadth that I guess he hadn't had before. It was in him before, but going down to Cuba was really an outlet for him to open up and to expand and to learn. And he came back, and we started playing music together, and we knew this could really be great. So he was sort of taken on as a hired gun. He didn't want to be a committed member.

PM: Right.

LP: But the truth of the matter is, he wasn't charging us hired gun fees. He agreed to do it for the same as everybody else. And really, he was a member of the band from the start.

PM: Right.

LP: And then luckily enough, all this stuff went down, the story I told you about meeting Sugar Hill at the Suwannee Springfest. And we just said to him, "Scott, you got to put your name on this deal. You got to be a band member here. We love you. This is going to blow up. And I really think if you commit to us, all the work you're going to put into it has the full potential of paying off." And it was really cool. My dad had a heart to heart with him. I'm not sure if you know my old man at all.

PM: Well, Michael Wrycraft [the impassioned Canadian CD designer who comes up in the Oliver Schroer review this issue] told me a little about your dad. Michael said your dad basically originated the idea of the Canadian folk festival.

[laughter]

LP: That's not completely true, but he's certainly been--I would say out of everyone who's still alive, he's had the most impact on the Canadian folk scene, without a doubt. Just in the sense that he founded the Winnipeg Folk Festival and the Vancouver Folk Festival.

PM: Jeez.

LP: His main influence was a woman named Estelle Klein. She started Mariposa Folk Festival, which is a descendant of the Newport Folk Festival.

PM: Right.

LP: But Estelle really influenced my dad. And he started the Winnipeg and Vancouver festivals, which were the catalysts, and actually had a big part in starting the Edmonton Folk Festival, as well, because he did this 1980 Traveling Folk Festival of Alberta, and the last gig of the Traveling Folk Festival, all those people were also hired to play the First Annual Edmonton Folk Festival. So he was certainly instrumental in getting a lot of the money for the first Edmonton Folk Festival. There are so many different festivals across the country, and they have a great effect on musicians who come into a town. I'm experiencing this all the time, everywhere we go in the States. We show up to a festival and kick ass, and when we come to the town next time, we have a great show.

PM: Right.

LP: So I mean, out of anyone who's alive now, I'd say he's definitely had a significant impact and created more opportunities--I don't know, it's sort of hard to describe...

PM: And is Mitch a player as well, or just a promoter extraordinaire?

LP: Yeah, he plays the five-string banjo. He plays clawhammer banjo. So--where was I going before I got off on my dad, there? I was saying about Scott joining the band--

PM: Right.   continue

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